CA’s insistence on an independent process,despite the fact its board had the constitutional power to remove a ban that directors had directly imposed five years ago,led to a drawn out saga that has left Warner and the administration at odds. They can be expected to speak again in January once the South Africa series ends.
“Yeah definitely,” Warner said when asked if the end of the saga,albeit with his non-preferred outcome,would help him this week. “We reached out in February,so we have no idea how it went on this far,and only CA can answer that,and they’ll probably give you the same thing they give everyone else and they won’t really give an answer.
“Leading into the Perth Test my mental health probably wasn’t where I needed to be at to be 100 per cent,and that was challenging. If I had it my way we would’ve had that all sorted. So from the CA point of view I didn’t really have any support,but my teammates and the staff in our team were absolutely amazing,and my family and friends.
“They really got me through that period. It’s Christmas time,the festive part of year,I’m in a great headspace now getting ready for this training session,and pumped to walk out and play another Boxing Day Test,but more importantly with a series on the line.”
On the matter of whether,in hindsight,it may have been better to step down from the Test side for the Perth and Adelaide matches while the ban process was going on in the background - the hearing was originally slated for December 14 - Warner was adamant.
“I’ve never had that in me to quit or back down,so for me I feel like I can get through anything,and at the time I was focused on scoring runs and doing the best job I could for the team,” he said.